A Little Older, A Little Wiser
by fringeperson
Summary: Kagome isn't the normal girly-girl, and that changes the way that she lives her life and reacts to the outside forces that impact upon it and leave her without any control. oneshot, complete, up for adoption, don't own.


Kagome had daily detentions after school for her refusal to adhere to the dress code. Oh, she wore the uniform. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that she also wore a pair of well-worn denim jeans under her green skirt. They weren't tidy, they didn't match, and they denied the old men who ran the school a view of her knickers when they came to do inspections. In sports class, while all the other girls were wearing bright red spandex briefs with their white sweat-shirts tucked into them, Kagome wore her jeans, and let the shirt hang loose. If it was a very hot day she'd wear a pair of shorts instead, but generally she wore her jeans.

It really didn't bother her any that she was being held back after class because of her refusal to _not_ wear the jeans with her uniform. Generally, she used that time to get ahead on her homework in a quiet environment. No Souta playing loud, annoying video games that would give her a headache. No Grandpa talking, at great length, about fascinating legends that would almost definitely distract her from the boring homework. No Mother asking for a hand about the house, something that Kagome didn't really mind, or trying to talk her into wearing a dress and learning more about being feminine, which she really, _really_ did.

So the classroom after the school day was over was where Kagome got most of her homework done. After she was released from detention, she stopped by one of the many dojo's that was between her school and the shrine where she lived. Kagome, for all that she acted the part of shrine maiden when there were festivals, and knew that she would continue to do so probably all her life, also studied the naginata, a weapon that had the blade at the end of a pole, giving reach and leverage to the smaller person in the fight and enabling them to win despite odds – _if_ they were good enough. Which Kagome was. She never competed on a professional level, but she was the student put forward as star pupil when guest instructors came from other dojos to visit.

"Kagome!"

Kagome stopped and turned, just a few paces out of the door after she'd been let out of detention and someone was calling her name. Options: two. Idiot-boy who had a crush on her, or her friend Ayumi. Since the voice that had called was female, bets were in Ayumi's favour.

Kagome smiled. "Hey," she answered, waving. "Eri and Yuka know where you are?" she asked as the other girl came up beside her.

Ayumi shook her head. "As if they'd let me leave if they did," she answered. Eri and Yuka were her friends, and they were alright as friends went, but they were _very_ pushy and _very_ gossip-y, and they just didn't get why Ayumi was friends with Kagome.

Kagome who was pretty. Kagome who was smart. Kagome who was a tomboy with long hair and always wore jeans rather than showing off her legs like all the other girls did. Kagome who was probably the only girl in the entire school who had chosen to attend the school for the education rather than the uniform. Kagome who was _nothing_ like them.

Kagome who had been there for her when her mother had died while giving birth to her baby sister, who had also died from 'complications'. Kagome who had let her cry for ages and been there for her with tissues and hot chocolate. Kagome who had happily shared her own mother so that Ayumi would still have someone to go to when she had awkward female questions.

"Of course," Kagome snorted in amusement, rolling her eyes. "They have to protect sweet little Ayumi from the big, bad, coarse Kagome."

Ayumi giggled in amusement. That about summed it up really. A lot of their peers thought that, because Kagome got detentions every day for wearing jeans with the uniform, she must be bad news. They couldn't have been more wrong, but Kagome didn't bother to correct them. If they were so worried about it, Kagome figured, let them worry. It didn't matter to _her_ if they were all that stupid.

"You and your father are still coming for dinner on Sunday right?" Kagome asked.

Ayumi nodded. "Of course we are!" she said with a smile. "It's your birthday dinner!"

Kagome smiled. Actually, her birthday was tomorrow, Thursday, but her family had a big dinner on the nearest Sunday to celebrate when any of them had a birthday.

Kagome swung an arm over Ayumi's shoulders. "And there will be..." Kagome trailed off, grinning.

Ayumi smiled in answer, wrapping one of her own arms around Kagome.

"Chocolate cake!" the two girls cheered together as they walked down the hall.

~oOo~

"Buyo, if you make me late for school I swear I will spear you!" Kagome hissed as she went into the well house after the family's fat cat. Souta was too chicken to go after the animal himself, when it was _his_ job to feed him. It wasn't like it would hurt Buyo to miss a meal or two at this point, but Souta was so worried for the creature that Kagome had buckled and gone in to fetch the pet out for him.

"Gotcha!" she crowed in triumph as she closed her hand around the scruff of Buyo's neck and dragged him out from where he'd been hiding under the steps down into the well house.

Just as she stood up with him though, she heard the sound of wood shattering behind her, and felt a rush of wind up the back of her neck. Then six arms closed around her and dragged her backwards into the well.

At least Buyo would get away, as she flung him towards the still-open door of the well house, where Souta was staring at her, wide-eyed in fear. She heard him yelling for their mother and for Grandpa as she was dragged down.

Now, there was a second, more secretive reason for Kagome being the favoured student at the dojo that taught the techniques of the naginata. It was also the reason she enjoyed her grandfather's stories so much. About three years ago, Kagome had, quite by accident, channelled energy along the edge of her blade. Miko energy. Being able to make your blade _glow_ was always going to draw attention, and some extra tutelage so that she could control when she made it glow and how much, and _that_ had led to a bunch more lessons.

Right now, Kagome put some of the other lessons to use by concentrating her energy in her hands and planting them on the face of the _thing_ that was holding her. She was well used to being grabbed by _things_ by now. They'd started showing up about a year after the first time she'd made her naginata glow. There weren't a lot of them, and they were always both ugly and weak. It was better to think of them as things, and that she would be ending their misery, because anything that looked like _they_ did _had_ to be miserable.

Kagome finally hit the bottom of the old well, alone. A fading scream and a cloud of dust all that was left of the _thing_ that had grabbed her. Kagome didn't even know what it had been. She honestly never much cared to look. What she _did_ care to notice right now though, was that there was blue sky above her rather than the roof of the well house.

"Well, now I understand what the old saying means when they say 'the frog at the bottom of the well does not know the sea'," she commented to herself quietly, a slight smile on her face. "I bet that frog dreams of flying instead," she chuckled, then grabbed hold of a vine that was growing down the inside of the well and started hauling herself out.

"Some birthday this is turning out to be," Kagome huffed to herself as she pulled herself over the side of the well. "Souta is going to have to hide Buyo from me if he doesn't want his cat to be turned into a mangy bit of pelt. I am _so_ missing school today," she grumbled, then sagged against the side of the well, eyes falling closed in frustration. "Unless..." she mused, opening her eyes to stare up at the sky before she twisted around to look back down into the well.

It had brought her to this place after all. Theoretically, it should be able to take her back again, right? Right. It wasn't that big of a jump either really. A grim smile on her face and determined to test her theory – which had better be right – so that she could get to class hopefully on time still, Kagome leapt over the side again. A blue glow surrounded her, and she grinned when she landed and looked up to see the inside of the old well-house.

"Kagome?" her mother called down. "Are you alright? Souta said you fell in."

"Just get me out of here!" she yelled back. "A ladder, a _rope_, just _something_! I am _not_ telling Sensei that I was late because my brother's fat cat made me fall down the old well!"

A chuckle was heard and a rope was promptly tossed into the well, and for the second time in five minutes, Kagome hauled herself up the inside of the old well.

"Here's your lunch and your bag dear," Mrs Higurashi said, handing them both over. "You're going to have to run for it I'm afraid."

Kagome grinned. "I'm not afraid of a bit of running Ma," she answered. She kissed her mother's cheek and took off, waving behind her and calling her thanks as she took off for school.

~oOo~

"Cutting it pretty close weren't you, Kagome?" Ayumi asked at the first opportunity, which was their lunch break. "You practically ducked under Sensei's arm and into your seat!"

Kagome chuckled. In retrospect, it was funny, and half a day of class was enough time for her to get over the mild panic she'd felt when she saw her sensei at the classroom door. "Yeah," she agreed. "Souta's cat was hiding, and Souta's such a wimp he got me to look in the old well house. Buyo was there alright, made me fall into the old well too. I was lucky I didn't hurt myself, and then I had to wait for Souta to get Ma, and for Ma to get a rope for me to climb out, and then I ran the whole way here."

Kagome finished her story with a flourish of her left hand, apparently indicating her frustration with the situation for anybody who was watching or listening in – and the proportion of gossips in her class was high, so there were a lot of people doing just that. To Ayumi however, the gesture meant that there was more to the story, but she wasn't going to talk about it on school grounds where there were ears and wagging tongues all around them.

Ayumi nodded and accepted that she'd get the _full_ story from her friend when she and her father joined the Higurashi's for dinner on Sunday.

And the full story she got.

The birthday celebration was over and the two girls had retreated up to Kagome's room with a bowl of mochi and a pot of tea. Settled on big cushions on the floor, Kagome explained about the latest _thing_ attack – Ayumi knew about all of them, just like she knew Kagome could make her weapons and hands glow with power – and about there being what appeared to be a different world through a blue light in the bottom of the well.

"And the reason you haven't investigated this place beyond the blue light in the well is...?" Ayumi asked when she finally got over her awe.

Kagome gave her friend an amused but resolved look in return. "I have school," she answered seriously. "Besides, it didn't look like there were shops or anything about, so there would be a lot of planning to do before I went exploring. Things like a tent, sleeping bag, the whole array of camping supplies, a good first-aid kit, a _real_ and _sharp_ naginata, rather than just the kind used in sparring, just in case there are dangers there."

Ayumi giggle. "Right, so that's an after-graduation thing to work towards. At least I know what to get you for birthdays and Christmases from now on," she said with a smile.

"Camping gear!" the girls cheered together before breaking down into giggles once more.

"And you have to take a camera with you," Ayumi said when they'd calmed down. "I know I'm not cut out for all that camping stuff, not like you are, but I'd like to see what's there, which means you taking pictures of all the cool stuff you see there."

Kagome nodded in agreement. "Add that to the list," she said. "No, wait, hang on," she murmured, and sat up, crawling over to her desk and yanking open one of the larger drawers. A few seconds of shuffling things around inside and an exclamation of victory later, Kagome withdrew a camera bag.

"Looks kind of old," Ayumi observed doubtfully. Certainly the camera bag _did_ look old. It was all brown leather and worn-looking. When Kagome brought the camera itself out, it was _also_ clearly quite old. An old SLR, but _old_ all the same.

"It takes regular film," Kagome said, holding it up between herself and her friend. "But it's a wind up thing, rather than running on batteries." Kagome turned it around and brought it a little closer to herself. "It belonged to my dad," she added more quietly. "He took beautiful pictures with it."

All of Ayumi's protests – and it wasn't like she had any apart from the age of the thing – died in the face of the sentimental value of the item, and she smiled softly at her best friend.

"We still should write up the rest of that list, and we can write 'camera' and tick it off immediately," Ayumi said, offering a slightly forced grin with her poor attempt at humour.

Kagome laughed anyway, and grabbed paper and pencil off her desk. "Okay, we've got a list to make and until I graduate to get everything on it!" she declared with a grin.

"Graduate from middle school, high school, college or university?" Ayumi teased. "Because we'll have more time if you wait until you've got your degree."

Kagome nodded in agreement. "If I do something like medicine at university then I'll be more able to take care of any injuries I get or if I see other people hurt. So we have until I'm Doctor Higurashi."

Ayumi smiled. "Maybe you'll learn how to cook for yourself by then as well," she teased.

Kagome laughed. "Add that to the list," she said. "Because I'm going to have to, and over a camp fire at that."

The two friends laughed together even as Ayumi wrote down 'cooking lessons' at the top of the list.

~oOo~

The years passed, and Kagome moved on from middle school to high school, from high school to college, and from college to university. Ayumi was with her through all of it, following along with her choices of school because of the educations offered rather than because of whatever the uniform looked like. It amused Ayumi to no end that every school Kagome chose had a very cute uniform for the girls, always with a skirt, and that Kagome continued to wear her jeans under her skirts to school – and continued to get detentions after class every day for the first month of the year _at least_ when she refused to adhere to uniform policy by doing so.

It wasn't until university that the uniforms disappeared.

Then again, there were other uniforms to be worn by this time. Kagome didn't have a problem with the uniform she wore for her after-school job though. She was an instructor at the naginata dojo she had once been a student at, teaching the students who were new – so children or people who had come late to the idea.

Ayumi also had an after-school job that required a uniform. She was an apprentice chef at a restaurant a block away from the university that Kagome attended. As Ayumi was apprenticing as a chef, she didn't need to attend university, and so shifted into a full-time apprenticeship when she graduated from college.

Eri and Yuka, Ayumi's two other friends from middle school, had gone to different high schools and not been very good at keeping in touch, so that friendship had fallen through. They had been _very_ disappointed in Ayumi for choosing a different high school to attend, and very publicly turned their noses up at Kagome for "having separated Ayumi from her friends."

It didn't occur to them that Ayumi was a very friendly and outgoing girl when given half a chance, and easily made new friends at the new schools, some of them even liked Kagome as well, though none of them were as close as Ayumi and Kagome were.

"Graduation tomorrow," Ayumi commented as she walked back to the shrine with Kagome. Their respective widowed parents had gotten married while the girls were in college, so they lived together now at the Shrine.

Kagome nodded in silent answer. Everything was ready for her to disappear down the well and explore the world that lay beyond it – all the things they had decided that she would need were packed up in a large hiking pack, except for her naginata, which was too long to fit. Their family still didn't know about this plan, but Kagome intended to explain that she wanted to make a journey of self-discovery before she settled down into practice. It was true enough, in a way, and Ayumi was a better shrine-daughter than Kagome anyway.

The next day, after the ceremonies and celebrations were all finished, Kagome and Ayumi snuck out of the house, Kagome dressed warmly and carrying her things as she followed behind her step-sister and best friend.

"Take care of yourself," Ayumi ordered quietly as she hugged Kagome tightly.

"Likewise," Kagome answered, returning the hug before making certain of the straps around her torso, adjusting her grip on her weapon, and jumping into the well. The blue glow enveloped her before she hit bottom, and when she looked up she could see the stars, so much brighter and so much more plentiful than back home, shining above her.

With a smile, Kagome slung a rope and a hook up to latch over the lip of the well, and proceeded to pull herself out.

~oOo~

Kagome paused a moment to stare at the dog-eared boy who was pinned to a very familiar-looking tree. Now, admittedly, Kagome hadn't come across any other people in the area yet, but she was fairly sure having dog ears wasn't normal. Wearing old-fashioned kimono she could believe, but she was considerably less sold on the normality of dog-ears on an otherwise human physiology.

The arrow that apparently pinned the boy to the tree was an interesting point as well, as apparently it went through the pectoral, somehow slid between ribs, pierced the lung, and went out again through the shoulder blade – a _bone_ – and a whole lot more muscles in the back. Then again, maybe dog ears weren't the only physiological anomaly to this boy. She was prepared to believe that, as it looked like he was sleeping, even though he was effectively hanging from his left shoulder, and had clearly been there for a _very_ long time, for plant-life to have grown up around him so densely.

A thought, mischievous in nature, suddenly sprung upon Kagome, and caused her to snicker before setting her pack on the ground and opening up one of the compartments. From within, Kagome drew out a pair of scissors. Her weapon in one hand and a smirk on her face, Kagome climbed up the growth that surrounded the dog-eared boy and proceeded to cut his hair. Short. She left only a few millimetres of hair on his skull where before he'd had a full-on mane down to his gluteus maximus.

Kagome giggled as she hopped down to the ground once more. She didn't play practical jokes often, but really, how could she possibly resist that one? They guy had more hair than her, and her hair was her single willing exception for being girly, and came down to her waist. Looking up at her handiwork, Kagome giggled some more, then chuckled, then chortled, then laughed from her stomach until she couldn't stand any more and needed to hold onto her pack and her weapon to prevent herself from rolling around on the ground.

"Silence," a deep voice commanded from behind her, causing her to freeze in surprise and turn slowly.

Oh now _this_ guy was _pretty_. He had even more hair than she'd just shaved off the dog-eared boy, but on him it looked _good_, rather than looking like a shaggy mane like it had on the other boy. He had odd make-up on, but who was she to talk? For all she knew, it could be perfectly normal in this place, though admittedly the dog-eared boy didn't have any...

"Impudent human!" another voice shrieked from about knee-height.

Kagome brought her eyes down from the gorgeous guy's face to see who was screeching. Maybe 'what' would be better. It looked a _bit_ like a giant toad walking on its hind legs and wearing clothing. Well, it was green and had big bulging eyes anyway.

"How dare you impose yourself upon the great Lord Sesshoumaru's presence!" the toad-thing demanded.

Kagome looked back up at the gorgeous man and guessed _he_ was the 'Lord Sesshoumaru' that the toad-thing was talking about.

"Jaken," the immaculate man said. "Shut up."

The toad-thing bowed, stepping back and shaking where he stood.

Sesshoumaru walked up to the recently shaved boy where he was still pinned to the tree and frowned slightly, his eyes narrowed and his eyebrows drawn closer together.

"Every other avenue has resulted in failure and InuYasha is incapable of answering questions," he growled, then back-handed the incapacitated dog-eared boy in clear irritation.

Kagome wasn't all that surprised to see the boy wake. It looked like rather a hard hit.

"The seal is weakened!" the toad-thing, Jaken, exclaimed excitedly, a look of wonder on his face.

"Huh?" the boy stuttered, blinking the sleep out of his eyes as he came too.

"It would seem that the seal on you is not as strong as rumour would have had us believe," Sesshoumaru declared, his tone soft and deadly.

Kagome couldn't help but notice the way Jaken went rigid and broke out in a cold sweat. She didn't think amphibians _could_ sweat, was actually fairly sure that they couldn't, but he did only have a _passing_ resemblance to the toad.

"Or maybe it's having the priestess who sealed me handy," the dog-eared boy answered, swivelling his shaved head around to fix a golden eye on Kagome.

Kagome, for her part, had little to no idea what they were talking about.

"I very much doubt it, little brother," Sesshoumaru said. "You were sealed to this tree almost sixty years ago. Few humans live that long under normal circumstances. The priestess who sealed _you_, most particularly, died shortly after doing so."

"What are you talking about?" dog-boy demanded. "That's Kikyo right there!"

"Fool," Sesshoumaru scoffed.

Kagome finally pulled herself up onto her feet and hefted her pack, then collected her weapon.

"If the rest of this world is like this, I'm going to have some fun," Kagome declared with a smile. "See you around baldly," she said with a smile and wave to the dog-eared boy. "Toad-thing," she continued, nodding to Jaken. "Gorgeous," she finished, winking flirtatiously at Sesshoumaru – she hadn't dated at all during her educational career, but she _did_ know how to flirt. Then turned on her heel and walked away from the little gathering.

She didn't get far.

"Impudent human!" Jaken screeched behind her.

"Baldy? What's she talking about?" the boy yelled angrily, straining against the plants that held him in place.

Neither of them were the issue though. The issues was that Sesshoumaru was suddenly and silently in front of her, barring her passage.

Kagome barely managed to stop her own forward movement before bumping into him. She rather got the impression that he wouldn't have appreciated it. It might have been the way he looked down his nose at her, though from her perspective she was just glad that he wasn't looking down _too_ far, since she was quite tall for a Japanese woman without any mixed heritage.

He had her scissors in one hand and was holding them out to her. "These are yours, are they not, human?" he said.

Kagome blinked. "Oh, yes. I guess I forgot about them while I was laughing," she said as she took them back. "Thank you."

Kagome slung her pack off her back and put the scissors away before pulling it back on and standing up straight again. "May I go now?"

"Impudent human!" the toad-thing screeched again. "You should address Lord Sesshoumaru with respect!"

Kagome didn't bother looking, but shifted her grip on her naginata so that she was holding it near the blade, then swung it behind her, effectively clubbing the toad-thing without even having to look at him. "No offence meant, but I wouldn't presume to use someone's name before they gave it to me themselves, and of course, had asked for mine. That's manners," she added impishly.

Gorgeous narrowed his gaze at her. "This one is Lord Sesshoumaru of the Western Lands. What are you called, human?"

"I am Higurashi Kagome," she answered, then bowed slightly. "It is an honour to meet you, Lord Sesshoumaru," she said before she straightened. Then she smiled impishly. "It's always an honour to meet nobility, especially when the noble in question is such an exemplary male specimen."

"Such impudence!"

Kagome twisted her head, scowling slightly and raising a disdainful eyebrow at the toad-thing. Did he know _no_ other words? With a shake of her head, she dismissed the creature and returned her attention to the handsome being in front of her. "May I be permitted to go now, Lord Sesshoumaru?" she asked as politely as she could, trying very hard to keep all traces of sarcasm out of her voice.

The immaculate lord silently stepped aside.

Kagome smiled, bowed her head in deference once more, and left the area. She'd had her fun at the expense of the boy pinned to the tree and met an absolute dish. Such a shame she hadn't taken a picture. Ayumi would have _loved_ to drool over Lord Sesshoumaru with her when she got home. Oh well. Maybe they'd meet up again and she'd get another chance?

Unlikely. Oh well. That was probably for the best anyway. She somehow doubted the handsome guy would appreciate her killing his toad-like vassal.

~The End~


End file.
